New puppy cries when left alone

Question
Hi. The pet shop told us our 3 month dachshund puppy could be left alone for up to ten hours, she would just sleep most of the time anyway. We leave her in the large kitchen - but she's loud and pees/poops upon us leaving the house until we're back from work. (We just got her last weekend). When we're home she seems to start to understand to use the wee wee pads - the main problem though is the noise she makes in the apartment, and of course us feeling bad for our dog.

Answer
Tim,

First of all, unless you are not able to walk the dog and she is inside 100% of the time, I highly recommend crate training as opposed to puppy pad training and leaving her in the kitchen. And of course she uses the restroom, 10 hours is a LONG time for a 3 month old puppy to hold it in. They don't have the bladder size or control yet to make it quite that long sometimes. If there is any way for one of you to come home at lunch and walk her, or even hire sometime to come walk her... or maybe find a doggie daycare, any of those things would be beneficial to her. If none of those options are available to you, you will have to wait until she is crate trained and has a stronger bladder before you can expect to come home to an accident-free apartment. One other note - hopefully you aren't leaving food and water in there with her when you leave. Puppies need to eliminate almost immediately (or within about 30-60 minutes) of eating or drinking. I understand that leaving water seems the humane thing to do - but when she gets the hang of crate training you can start leaving her some in the crate with her.  Until then, its only going to make this harder. Just make sure you wake up in time to give her breakfast and plenty of water, and to give her a chance to use the restroom about 45 minutes later before you leave.

If you will google 'crate training', you'll find lots of great information. As long as you don't overruse the crate (the 10 hours you are gone is plenty long for her to be in one, try to leave her out all the time when you are home), dogs actually grow to like them. They are denning animals in nature and their crate becomes a very safe, personal space for them. The general rule of thumb for size is a crate that the dog can comfortably stand up and turn around in, and lay down and stretch out. If she is able to walk from one end to the other, that's too big, as it will allow her to use the restroom on one end and then move away from it. The main idea behind crate training is that dog's won't use the restroom in their bed. As for the crying - she will cry when you leave until she gets used to a crate or gets a little older.

Good luck!

Ashley